Cricket above and beyond all else

Poor governmental support for sports facilities
The problem however is that once Arnos Vale was constructed and international cricket paid due homage to its comparative status with other cricket facilities in the Caribbean successive governments virtually downed tools. At best there has been a tinkering with facilities all of which are at varying levels of development and suitability for the purposes of the respective sports associations in the nation.
That the Arnos Vale Cricket Ground was eventually expanded to accommodate tennis and netball had to do with the respective national sports associations seeking to persuade governmental authorities that this was needed to allow for the hosting of regional competitions at one point or other.
The construction of the now internationally renowned National Tennis Centre at Calliaqua had more to do with the insistence of the then Taiwanese representative and his love for the game than it was an initiative of the government of the day. Here again the role of one individual sports enthusiast, Samantha Goodluck, and her sheer insistence and persistence cannot be overlooked.
One may wish to suggest that had it not been for Cecil Cyrus this country would probably not have had a squash facility of the standard now existent at Paul’s Avenue, Kingstown. Cyrus’ insistence and persistence actually forged several alliances that eventually ensured the realisation of the facility even though it has since been through the mill in terms of controversy.
The Triangle Project appears to have been ill advised and to this date remains something of an enigma in the heart of an ever-increasing school district with little or not facilities of a recreational nature commensurate with population size.
The Victoria Park has been a major bone of contention for the many years of its existence.
The football fraternity played a sort of tit for tat role and took charge of sport at the Victoria Park as Arnos Vale was made the virtual home of cricket. The difference was that the latter was under the control of the Kingstown Town Board, the home of carnival and the prime entertainment sport in the nation and a critical revenue earner for the Town Board.
The establishment of Management Committees that would have guaranteed their maintenance and further development has not matched the construction of playing facilities across St Vincent and the Grenadines. He result is a series of poorly located, constructed, outfitted and maintained outdoor sports facilities.
Despite the claims to have done much work successive NSCs have simply tinkered at the fringes lacking vision and governmental support of the magnitude required to make progress.
There has been at all times an overwhelming concentration of Arnos Vale, something that is still evident.